Monday, April 3, 2017

the ENT

Thursday
I drove back to Bay City for my appointment with the ENT doc. The
speech therapist urged me to write down everything that we talked
about, the two types of attacks, all the little quirks that interfere
with my swallowing, like not being able to swallow pills larger than
a cold capsule or finding it hard to clear my throat at times (though
the latter might be due to dehydration so I am trying to make a
conscious effort to drink more water every day) and not to let him
rush the appointment.

The ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doc spent a decent amount of time so no real
complaint about that but I don't think he listened to me or was taking me
seriously and so far I am not that impressed. Supposedly he read the
list I had written up before he came in but he kept confusing the two
things and didn't seem to understand that a speech therapist would be
conducting the barium swallow (wanted to know how long I had been
seeing a speech therapist; I'm not), and made some comment that one of my neck vertebrae was
small and did it hurt (no), seemed surprised that I did yoga
regularly, decided that I had difficulty swallowing because I was
tense and anxious (no, I don't suffer from anxiety or depression or
stress and these episodes happen typically when I am relaxed and
having fun, I mean really, how tense can I be in my sleep), that it
was allergies (the events are not seasonal and no, no classic allergy symptoms
though my sinuses do get clogged at times), told me it because I
breathe through my mouth (uh, no). When the subject of breaking my
nose at age three came up...how do you know that he asked (because it happened to me, because my parents took me to the doctor
and had it checked periodically), talking about some other detail of
my throat he asked me why I thought that was (if I knew that I
wouldn't be here). There was more but you get the idea. He finally
settled on my sinuses and told me to use a particular nasal rinse
(saline solution) and a lubricating nasal gel (aloe vera in it) three
times a day every day for the two and a half weeks (three times a
day, every day? I kept asking, seems a little excessive to me) til my
next appointment when he is going to stick a little camera down my
nose and take a look see. Oh joy.

And
this nasal rinse isn't just inhaling a mist. This is pouring two
ounces of solution into one nostril until it runs out the other or
your mouth and then 2 ounces through the other nostril. More
seriously ooky stuff.

Oh
yeah, and he ordered an x-ray of my sinuses which I am waiting for
them to schedule.

The
best thing I took away from this visit was when I asked him if I
wasn't choking but suffocating from some spastic muscle, if I pass
out will it relax and I'll be able to breathe? He hedged his bets,
“90% of the time, yes”. Whether or not they figure out what's
going on, and my money is on not, it doesn't look like this is going
to kill me.

I
wonder if the episodes would pass quicker if I just let myself pass
out rather than struggling to breathe through them.

15 comments:

They will spray a numbing spray in your nose because most people are scared of the tube, but in actuality, there is no pain and they don't need to. Usually those ENT guys are very good. I sat for 8 hours in the ER with daughter yesterday. She'd had a migraine for four days and couldn't see; it was like looking through a kaleidoscope with lines and triangles, minus the colors. They did an X-ray, CT scan and they only things they came up with is that her pupils were very dilated. Has to go to more doctors and tests this week. They sure seems to have trouble diagnosing more than a cold or flu these days.

Well, I guess it's encouraging that the doctor isn't more worried. If he believed it were something super-serious he'd have a much more urgent response. But all the same, he sounds a bit obnoxious. I hate it when doctors seem disbelieving. It's so disrespectful to the patient.

I would suggest that you work at whatever air you can during one of these very disturbing episodes, and only if you can't, keep that lovely 90% in mind. Keep pushing for answers, Ellen. Make sure you're heard. <3

Very odd and I am guessing that is why the doc has no solution. Keep working on it. If it gets better you well know that "something" worked. I find as I age, doctors do not listen to me much! It is as if my complaints are never serious because I am old and going to die anyway!

you mean on FB? my younger brother just can't help mansplaining to me. he is highly educated, I'll give him that but it makes him think he's smarter than everyone else. or maybe it was my reply to Tabor. anyway, my dad was a doctor and he didn't have much use for them either.

Sounds like a neti pot to me - I found ours when we moved (I swear I thought I'd thrown it away). And I don't know why I didn't use it - after inhaling all that dust I'm sure it would have helped no matter how disgusting...

To swallow tilt your head down to close the airway, to breath till your head back to open the airway, this may help you if you can do that when an episode hits. I have a weird thing happen when sometimes air gets trapped in my esophagus and I can't swallow and its painful. Like when a baby needs to burp... I have found just sipping some water helps make the air bubble move.